Phase 2

Jake's eyes are pretty much white from Phase 1 of initiation into the Buckingham family, so we'll call that phase complete.  Now he has passed Phase 2.  Last night (at 3 weeks and 1 day), I happened to notice a roll in his thigh!  He's been working hard on that, day and night.  Apparently he already knows that Buckingham children must develop rolls.  Welcome to the family, my boy!

In the 'Hood

We don't have any guns at our house except a few that shoot water.  Our neighbors, on the other hand, are happy to supply us with them...plentifully.  There's been recent evidence of gang violence in our neighborhood...

 I cracked up when I left the kids outside for just a minute and came back to them giggling and tracing each other with guns.

After watching John hold guns backwards for so long, it's kind of funny to see that Ellie has no problem holding it properly.  She's not the baby in the house anymore.

My Big Helper

We have lots of trees around our house, thus lots of leaves.  Eve has been a big helper this year!  She is always wanting to "grape" the leaves.  No matter how many times I tell her it's called a "rake", she still wants to use the "graper" and "grape" leaves.  As long as she's being such a big help, she can call it just about anything!

It's A Tiger!

I forgot to post this one last week. 

Resting up for game time.  Jake's first Clemson football game (only on TV).  As of today, he's 2-0.

Big Day!

Friday (1 day shy of 2 weeks old), Jake went to the doctor for his well visit.  8 lb. 6 oz., 47th percentile, almost back to his birth weight.  21 in, 76th percentile.  Head circumference 14.25 in., 66th percentile.  While we were at the doctor's office, his umbilical cord fell off.  Jake has a belly button!  John was so excited that we can now give him a bath in the sink.  He had his first real bath today.  He cried almost the whole time, but was hungry, so I'm not convinced he hated it.

Also on Friday, we went to meet our worthy opponents that I mentioned so much on the blog, Autumn and Kiko.  John, Eve, and Ellie didn't want a picture, but they did enjoy seeing him.

Life Is Beautiful

That's 40 TOES!!

 

Last Tuesday was a day off school, but it was sort of yucky outside.  What better time to try and get some pictures of the kids.  I think pictures of their hands and feet are so cute.  I just love the chubby dimples in their knuckles and little Fred Flinstone feet, and comparing them all.  Unfortunately, with 4, everything can be a little more difficult, but pictures rank somewhere at the top of the list.  I'll put the outtakes first, and the sweet ones last.  I'll leave it up to you to decide which ones actually represent life in our zoo house.

 I have lots of helping hands!

 And finally, we sort of got it.  I tried to get one with the three older ones kissing Jake on the head (I have a super cute one of John and Eve kissing Ellie).  Well, that just didn't happen.

 I also love the newborn pictures.  Here are some of my favorites...

 

I have found myself staring down at each of my children as a newborn in complete awe that God has created them so small, yet everything they need for the rest of their lives is already formed inside and functioning.  Just watching their little ribs expand as they breathe is amazing to me.  Watching them smile in their sleep is icing on the cake.  I love that parenthood gives us so many glimpses into God's eyes.  I think about the excitement and anticipation of welcoming Jake into the family, and I imagine that's just a glimpse of how excited God is to welcome a new believer into His family.  Likewise, I have such joy watching my children smile, grow, learn, and have joy themselves.  How much more must God have joy watching us, whom He loves so dearly.  What a treat to have such a glimpse and be able to enjoy and be amazed by His creation.

Happy Halloweenie!!!

We've had the kids' Halloween costumes for well over a month.  It's one thing I figured I could check off my list early.  Needless to say, as a result, they've been rather excited about Halloween for a long time!

 Eve got to wear her costume to dance class the week before Halloween.  Ellie is dressed in her dance outfit (mind you, she doesn't take dance, just dresses for it and watches through the window).  Eve and Ellie are quite the posers!  Unfortunately, the Ariel costume was not well suited for dancing, so this is the only time Eve actually wore the whole thing.  She swore off the wig pretty quickly.

 Ellie, on the other hand, LOVES the wig!

Halloween night...

 The cutest little Minnie Mouse you ever saw!

 At 4 days old, that's the freshest weenie you ever saw!  This was Ellie's costume.  I think it was big on her.  She was 5.5 months old when she wore it.

 A little Ketchup and a little Mustard, and you got yourself a cute little hot dog.

 I had to include this picture of our neighbor's dog, Katrina.  Such a fun costume!

 After hosting Halloweenie the past 7 years, we couldn't bear the idea of taking a year off.  We had several friends and Grandma come to the rescue.  Lauren and Eve were both mermaids.  Fun!  Note that I had chosen a white turtleneck for Eve to wear underneath, but after a long, drawn-out tantrum, she chose the cat shirt, and I was cool with that.  Poor thing kept saying, "I don't think I'm cute".

 Ariel and Obi-Wan weren't crazy about having their pictures taken, but we managed to snap this one.

 Eve, John, Scotty, Noah, Rachel, Andrew, and Lauren.  They made quite the Trick-or-Treating group.  

 Trick or Treat!  Poor Ellie had trouble keeping up (so did I), so the girls and I had to split after a short while.  Don't feel bad, though.  They were happy with the Trick or Treating they did, and everyone got more candy than they'll ever be allowed to eat.

Scott and Buck manned the grill most of the night, except when they took their turns Trick or Treating with the kids.  What a fun time!  We are so thankful for the friends, family, and neighbors that helped us pull it off this year.  Eight years running - some neighborhood kids have grown up on our tradition, we've met so many new neighbors, and throughout the neighborhood we're known as "Oh, you're the ones that do the hotdogs!"  230ish served this year!  Happy Halloweenie!

Anatomy 101

How we've managed to come this far without more anatomy discussions is beyond me.  I guess John just isn't really interested, and we haven't corrected Eve when she's been a little off target.  We have, however, been forced to explain some things over the past few months.  I think I touched on our discussions about how the doctor would get the baby out (Ellie tells everyone that looks at Jake, "The doctor got him out.")
We've also had to explain about nursing.  Eve is apparently our curious one.  She was wanting to see Jake eat at the hospital, but I wasn't really up for the challenge, so we managed to time our visits well.  When we got home, though, it was time to confront the issue.  When I started to feed him, both girls were home and quite interested.  Eve pointed to me and asked, "What's that?"  Having managed to somehow avoid these discussions thus far, I was on the spot to provide appropriate terminology, which is non-existent in my opinion.  "Those are boobies."  Eve was satisfied with that answer.  Ellie, on the other hand, in her everything-is-the-end-of-the-world voice, which she uses every time she speaks incidentally, said, "NOOOOOOO!!!  I don't want a boobie!!!!"  After which she clarified, "I don't want to eat a boobie!!!!"  I reassured her (stifling chuckles) that she didn't have to (not that I had at any point offered or implied that she did), and then she was OK.  Since then, everyone seems to be comfortable with Jake's meal time.

Welcome Home

 After 2 nights in the hospital, a standard stay, we were ready to come home and get back into the swing of things.  Looking back, I'm a little shocked at how quickly we got back into the swing of things, but I guess with number 4, there's not much of a choice.  Somehow, with Jake only being a week and a half old, I already feel behind on recording things.  It just seems like so much happens all at once!  We've had so many people help out, bring meals, clean our BATHROOMS!  We've also had lots of visitors. 

 One highlight was Jake getting to meet Aunt Amy and his cousins Bella and Marco. 

Bella was eager to hold Jake.  Marco, well, not so much.  It was Halloween night, and he was a bit more interested in his candy (can't say I blame him).


Jake has really done well transitioning to home.  I don't remember any of the others smiling this early, but Mom said she even saw him smile in the hospital.  I've seen him smile several times since, and no, not because he has gas.  I've seen it more in his sleep, but a few times when he's awake.  Unfortunately I haven't caught it on the camera yet.  He's sleeping pretty well.  Most nights he just gets up to eat, falls asleep while he's eating, and goes back down nicely.  He's a bit of a spitter, so that's bothered him a few nights, but not regularly.  He's very quiet and sleepy still.  Certainly not a fussy baby.  The kids are doing fairly well with him.  John and Eve like to be right up close to him, while Ellie likes to pet his head a second, then go back to what she was doing.  She's very interested in him, and likes him a lot, just not obsessed with him.  Eve is very much a mother.  She helped me with his first bath at home, and is always concerned when he cries. 

John likes to kiss him and play with him a lot, and sings nursery rhymes to him.  They're all very sweet to Jake (even if their behavior otherwise is suffering).

Jake has been participating in Phase 1 of initiation into the Buckingham family...sunbathing in the nude.  Somehow all 4 have had high biliruben.  He doesn't seem to mind. 

Adjusting to 4 is certainly an adventure.  So far, so good, thanks to all the help we've had from so many special friends and family.  I'm just not sure how it's flying by so fast!

Meet the Family

Alright, Baby Jake, are you ready for this???

 Grandma brought John, Eve, and Ellie to meet Jacob Scott Buckingham for the first time the evening he was born.  Seeing their excitement coming into the room to meet him for the first time is one of the most special things I've ever experienced.  It was much like when John and Eve came to meet Ellie.  They were so quiet and well behaved in the halls so as not to disturb the babies.  Even when they saw him and were overcome with excitement, they were still so quiet and gentle.  Such a genuine moment.

 We announced his name as they were looking at him in the bassinet.  John had a hard time remembering it, but they all wanted to call him by his full name for a while.

 They all sat on the bed with pillows to hold him for the first time.

 We had to take off his cute footie pants to show off his cute feet.

 Finally Grandma got a turn.  I think she likes him.

 Jake had gifts for his older brother and sisters.

 John, Eve, and Ellie made cupcakes to celebrate Jake's official Birth-Day.

 Our first family picture

 The Birth-Day party

 Jake got passed around and passed around.  I should have counted how many times I heard, "Can I have a turn now?"

 So so sweet.

 Ellie's cute little chubby fingers never looked so big to me until she was petting Jake's tiny little head.  Ellie was the one I worried most about.  I thought she'd have a really rough time transitioning into being a big sister, but she loves her little brother and has been so sweet to him.

 There's a lot of baby-holding experience here.

 So so sweet.  It just warms my heart to see how much they each love their little brother.

 After such a long day, it was time for a nap.

 Day 2 Jake started with his hearing test.  He was really restless and failed the first time, but passed with flying colors the next day.

 Grandma, John, Eve, and Ellie came again in the afternoon to see Jake again and bring a special gift.

 They made this monkey at Build A Bear as a Welcome present. 

 Again, visits, doctors and nurses in and out, it's all a lot of work.  It was time for some male bonding.  Napping to football is a good initiation to manhood.  I got a good chuckle afterward.  Jake has been a good eater from the get-go, but the first time he burped was after this session of man time.

One more night in the hospital, several more doctor and nurse visits, and we were ready to check out and come home.  I was able to snap some sweet and fun shots while we waited to be discharged.

 Here's the hat I made.  It's not going to fit for long!

Time to head home Big Guy.  You've got a lot waiting for you!